Not Just Reading the World as It Used To Be

No one would argue against the idea that the internet has changed the way we communicate. Just today, the course of my procrastination took me to two articles about the role of social media in defining America. One article told the story of how the Obama campaign made use of its tumblr to rally its young supporters to go out and vote. The other posted examples of the way a "twitter bot" has become an advocate for both good grammar and the respect of speakers of other languages. Both articles used innovative forms of communication, the first posting links in just about every sentence, and the second combining twitter posts with a traditional news story.

We don't need stories like these to let us know that new, more flashy and lighthearted ways of communicating are changing the way we look at the world. The Obama campaign may not have been won through tumblr and memes, but if the students at my school were voting, it certainly would have been. Students who knew nothing about policies were quite well informed about Mitt Romney's latest blunders. The Obama campaign shows what effective internet communication can look like, leading me to wonder, what would effective internet communication look like in schools?

I have to admit, I was not won over by the iLit series' take on microfiction and twitter novels. Somehow putting memes into a print book and sterilizing them according to copyright law seems to suck the life out of them––kids get that. At the same time, if proponents for ELA are going to make a claim for teaching students to "read the world," as both authors we studied this term do, teachers need to be engaging students in relevant forms of communication. The ability to do so will be one of the benefits teachers reap with the advent of technology in the classroom. This blog itself has allowed us to explore the benefits of alternative forms of communication in context, and I for one have found its informal style liberating and comfortable. Of course, as with anything new, there will be concerns to mirror the benefits, but the fact is that students already are engaged in this form of communication. Like it or not, we're going to have to find a way to catch up.

"Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either."

-Marshal McLuhan